The salaries of experts working in the identity and access management (IAM) field jumped 11% on average over the past year, the highest increase out of 20 categories of cybersecurity work monitored by Cybershark Recruitment’s Cybersecurity Salary Survey.

The survey is an annual benchmark of industry remuneration, conducted in partnership with SC Media UK and compiled from the results of a 29-part questionnaire completed by 2100 cybersecurity professionals across the UK late last year.

IAM was one of four categories where salary increases were up 8% or more year-on-year. IAM employees with more than 21 years of experience reported earning £120,000 to £145,000 while at the other end of the scale, IAM newcomer with 1-3 years of experience were earning £42,000 to £55,000.

[DOWNLOAD: Cybershark Recruitment’s Cyber Security Salary Survey 2024]

The other 8%-plus increases were for employees specialising in business continuity management (up 9.8%), digital forensics (up 9.3%) and those working on critical national infrastructure (up 8.7%).

“There have been a number of significant growth areas in terms of salary increases, the growth in these areas as well as the demand for talent drives salaries upwards with companies competing against one another,” Cybershark Recruitment managing director Daniel Murray said.

IAM roles also commanded strong salary increases in Cybershark’s 2023 survey as organisations snapped up the expert talent needed to harden their systems against threat actors “and we don’t foresee this slowing down,” Murray said.

In its latest Annual Review, the National Cyber Security Centre warned that the UK needs to accelerate work to keep pace with the changing threat landscape, particularly in relation to enhancing cyber resilience in the nation’s most critical sectors.

“In digital forensics, as well as incident response (where salaries were up 4.5%), we have seen a huge demand for people with significant technical expertise and leadership skills,” Murray said.

“With the huge increase in public breaches, there is an enormous demand for incident response professionals who have experience dealing with some of the most difficult attacks including ransomware,” he said.

“We see these areas continuing to grow, driven by demand over the next 12 months.”

London salaries on the rise again

While there was almost no growth in London salaries last year, that had changed with a 4.9% average increase in the latest survey as organisations enticed people back to the capital either in hybrid or full-time onsite roles.

Working in other parts of the UK were also commanding decent salary increases.

“Northern Ireland has become a hub for cybersecurity companies and demand for candidates is extremely high, and so with demand we see salaries have risen (up 9.7%),” Murray said.

Strong increases were also reported by those working in Scotland (up 4%), the Northwest (up 7%), and the Southeast (up 6.4%).

“We have seen higher demand for people based in these areas, so to lure people from around the country to these growth areas companies are offering more competitive salaries,” he said.

“Similar to last year, the remote working way of life that some companies still offer also contributes to the growth of salaries in these areas, where companies offer 100% remote working, some candidates have relocated to areas where the cost of living is lower but retained the salaries they would have been earning working in an office in London.”

Gender pay gap closing

While the percentage of women in the cybersecurity workforce has remained stagnant at around 14-15% for the past few years, women received higher salary increases than men over the past year.

Salaries for females were up 11.5% (compared to 11% last year), higher than the average 9% increase achieved by males.

“From collaborating with many clients across the UK, more are implementing gender and ethnic diversity and inclusion programmes across their business to give everyone an equal and fair opportunity to join, progress and develop their career within an organisation, which is great to see,” Murray said.

[DOWNLOAD: Cybershark Recruitment’s Cyber Security Salary Survey 2024]

Simon Hendery Senior Correspondent

Simon Hendery is a freelance IT consultant specializing in security, compliance, and enterprise workflows. With a background in technology journalism and marketing, he is a passionate storyteller who loves researching and sharing the latest industry developments.